There’s a saying that goes “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.” Next time you head out for a session with the roping dummy, practice for breakaway roping success with these tips from 2022 National Finals Breakaway Roping Aggregate Champion Cadee Williams.
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1. Practice your dummy roping from multiple angles.
“I like to rope the dummy from a bunch of angles. You see a lot of people just walk up and rope [from one spot] all day. I like to rope it from all over. You want to be able to put your rope wherever you want to. You could get a calf that ducks right or ducks left, so you really want to be able to feel your rope and play with your rope as much as you can from multiple angles. This gives you the confidence to rope your calf no matter where they’re going.”
2. Work on keeping your upper body quiet.
“You don’t want to throw yourself around every which way when you’re riding a horse, so I try to keep my body still when I’m practicing on the dummy. I work on keeping quiet with my shoulders
3. Keep your swing big and open.
“I like to have a big, big range. You want to keep your angles good, big and open, covering that right shoulder. When you get too tight with your swing, too handcuffed, there’s a lot of things that can wrong. You don’t have to have a huge loop to keep everything big, just really work on the circumference of your swing. Breakaway is getting so fast that you really have to throw right after your first swing—so whether your goes left, right, straight wherever, your coverage needs to be there.”
Build a strong foundation in breakaway roping with Roping.com’s library of training videos for breakaway beginners. Learn the basics with the complete Breakaway Fundamentals playlist.
